Pleased as punch, the khaki boys
Replay the Springfield’s blam and whunk,
Rifles propped for the photo op,
Above a grey belly and twisted trunk.
The trophy head and bragging rights
Shore-up their gleeful mantra—

Shoot for the bone, send it home…
And grin from ear to ear.

__________

Post-truth Discourse

2016 entry, Oxford English Dictionary: objective facts less influential in sharing public opinion

than appeals to emotion

“It’s-huge-it’s-gonna-be-great,”
no one asks about the “it.”
So the huge-it’s-gonna-be-great
gets dragged through the gate,
the Greeks pour out and flash goes Troy.
Hags in the woods screech
“It’s-huge-it’s-gonna-be-great,”
promise, cajole, beseech.
Baptized by bombast and blood lust,
the Thane of Cawdor converts
and summarily snuffs out a dynasty.

That “it” joined at the hip
with the vaguest of verbs
spumes and spews false claims,
lethal adjectives, and siren calls.
The “huge-it’s-gonna-be-great” con triumphs
in the Post-truth swamp, and the O.E.D.